Your Right to Know

MIAMI — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and incoming chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, denied yesterday that he engaged in sex with prostitutes during free
trips to the Dominican Republic provided by a political donor.

The denial from Menendez, who was re-elected to a second term last year, came as FBI agents
searched the offices of a prominent southern Florida eye doctor who is the donor cited in the
allegations.

The FBI did not explain the reason for the raid on the offices of Dr. Salomon Melgen, 58, saying
only that the agency was “conducting law-enforcement activity” in the vicinity of the
medical-office complex that includes Melgen’s West Palm Beach eye clinic.

The sprawling office building, usually buzzing with customers from Melgen’s booming practice,
was cordoned off yesterday. Investigators had been inside the building through the night, and about
2:30 p.m., agents loaded dozens of boxes into a government van.

The Dominican-born Melgen did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Melgen’s name has been linked in recent months to unsubstantiated reports, first published on
the conservative Daily Caller website, that he had provided Menendez with free trips aboard his
private plane to the Dominican Republic, where Menendez allegedly engaged in sex with underage
prostitutes.

“Dr. Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of Senator Menendez for many years,”
Menendez’s press office said in a emailed statement.

The Associated Press reported that Menendez’s office said he reimbursed Melgen $58,500 for the
full cost of two out of the three trips.

Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright said Menendez paid for the two trips out of his personal
account, so there were no reporting requirements.

Melgen is a longtime contributor to numerous political campaigns, including Menendez’s, totaling
$393,000 since 1998.

He faces a lien of $11.1 million from the Internal Revenue Service for taxes owed between 2006
and 2009, according to records of the Palm Beach County, Fla., recorder’s office.

Melgen fell victim to a Ponzi scheme in 2004 in which he lost $15 million, according to court
documents.

In a letter to the Department of Justice in July, the political-watchdog group Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington requested that the FBI investigate whether Menendez “
engaged in sex tourism by engaging in illicit sexual acts with underage prostitutes in the
Dominican Republic.”

The letter also asked the FBI to investigate whether Menendez “solicited the services of a
prostitute in Florida” and whether he violated the Mann Act, which bans the interstate trafficking
of women for prostitution.

CREW’s director, Melanie Sloan, said her group began looking into the Melgen-Menendez connection
after receiving email messages last year from a man calling himself Peter Williams. The man claimed
to have information that Menendez had been traveling to the Dominican Republic with Melgen, using
Melgen’s private jet and staying at Melgen’s Dominican homes in La Romana and the capital, Santo
Domingo.